The Oakland University Center for Excellence in Teaching in Learning awarded a High Impact Practices Teaching Grant for the curriculum development of Special Topics: Community Design.

Oakland University Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning states:

Research indicates that certain “high impact educational practices” when integrated into the teaching and learning environment can significantly impact student engagement, learning, and retention. The office of the Senior Associate Provost is pleased to announce grants that will allow faculty to integrate high impact activities into their undergraduate courses. High impact practices include: student/faculty research, learning communities, service learning, study abroad (short or long-term), internships, and senior culminating experiences.

These practices involve several key elements such as common readings, group projects, high performance expectations, investment of student effort over an extended period of time, interactions with students and faculty on substantive matters, experiences with diversity, constructive feedback, structured opportunities to reflect and integrate learning, real-world applications, and public demonstrations of competence.